Lacquered #4 - Mavala Nail Varnishes

You might have seen Mavala nail varnishes popping up on a couple of blogs every now and then. They might not be as hyped as OPI or Nails Inc, but everytime I read a review about these, people seem to enjoy them a lot. I was introduced to the brand by one of my mum's friends who stocks them in her salon, and she kindly let me pick three shades to try them out. I went for Khaki Vintage, a slightly silvery light grey, Samoa, a light coral, and Aquamarine a gorgeous lime green with green shimmer. All three shades are shimmery and will look gorgeous in spring/summer. I like that they come in wee 5ml bottles because I for one have never finished a 15ml bottle of nail varnish, but that might as well be down to the ridiculous amounts I own. They don't have a fancy brush, just your standard thin one which gets the job done as well. I found the formula of these to be more on the thinner side, which makes them easy to apply and they also dry quite quickly. These particular shades are quite sheer so you'll need a good three coats to get an opaque colour. With a humongous range of shades there's a shade to suit everyone, whether you're after a soft nude or something a bit more daring. You can also get the cutest little trios from feelunique, I love the look of the Grace collection! The only thing I don't really like about Mavala varnishes is their design. They look so tacky and old-fashioned, I wouldn't have purchased them. Apart from that, there is nothing I don't like about them, and I'm sure that with a new modern twist on the bottles, Mavala nail varnishes would get the hype they deserve, seeing as they are so affordable at £4.50 a bottle. There's nothing left to say, other than never judge a book by its cover!

Have you tried Mavala nail polishes before?

Lacquered #3

Hiya lovelies!

Everyone has at least one nasty habit right? Well, I've been biting my nails ever since I was a wee girl. When I started reading blogs and eventually started my own I kind of became obsessed with nail polish and I finally managed to stop. Over the years I've managed to accumulate quite a number of nail varnishes and I keep buying them. A while ago I started a series called "Lacquered" where I blog about the polishes I bought over a certain period of time and I noticed that I haven't done one of those in ages.

As you might be able to tell from the pictures these are mainly summery shades. The two Essie shades are from their Naughty Nautical summer collection but I think they look equally lovely during autumn. The p2 polishes are acceptable to wear during autumn as well, especially the nude one obviously. I also love a good navy polish at this time of the year. The topcoat is made of blue, greenish gold, and black coloured sequins and looks just beautiful layered over a white or black base. Last but by no means least I picked up three Essence polishes from their Me&My Ice Cream collection. This was available during summer and I chose a gorgeous pastel mint, pink, and purple. Now I know p2 isn't available in the UK unfortunately, I bought these in Germany but I'm sure there are similar if not identical shades available in Boots/Superdrug. I've got the next "Lacquered" post waiting in my drafts already so I hope you enjoyed today's post lovelies! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or contact me on Twitter.

What are your favourite nail polishes?

OPI Nail Envy & RapiDry Review

Hiya lovelies!

Just a quick note before I start with today's review, I finally feel like I got the hang of blogging regularly and it makes me happy to see my little bloggy grow. I'm ten GFC/70 Bloglovin' followers away from 300 now which is amazing, thank you so much! I appreciate every single one of you guys :)

Today I'm going to review another real lifesaver, namely the OPI Naily Envy nail strengthener. I was lucky enough to grab this little duo of Nail Envy [Original Formula, there are six different ones to choose from] and the RapiDry quick-dry top coat for a bargainous £13. Thank god for duty free! Nail Envy has helped my nails grow so much stronger, to be fair they're quite hard naturally but they were also very brittle. This little gem has helped them a lot and I haven't had a broken nail since I've started using this, touch wood! Most of the time people mistake my own nails for fake ones which is saying something. Costing £18.80 it's a bit on the pricier side of things but I've been using it for a good year now and there's only one fourth of it gone. I'll forever repurchase this as it's the best base coat I've ever used. Unfortunately I couldn't find this exact deal online but they're doing mini versions of the original Nail Envy which is £5 *here* and the RapiDry top coat which is £3.75 *here* if you fancy trying them out without making your bank account weep.

The top coat is amazing as well, although I wouldn't pay the full price of £13.95 simply because there are cheaper alternatives available on the high street but I love using this nonetheless. It gives my nails a super glossy finish and makes my nail varnish last up to a week without chipping. It also dries within a few minutes which is great if you can't be bothered sitting around for hours not being able to touch anything. All in all this is a brilliant little duo and I'm so glad I bought it. Nail Envy is definitely worth every penny and I can't recommend it enough!

Have you tried Nail Envy or RapiDry? What are your thoughts on them?

Top 5 springtime nail polish

Hiya lovelies! Hope you're all good :)

My plan to blog every three to four days did not work out so far, life has this strange habit of always getting in the way! I'm working on it as I really enjoy blogging but never get around to it as there is always something that needs sorting out. Boo-hoo!

Today however, with the weather being lovely lately I thought I'd share my top 5 nail polish picks for spring. Being obsessed with nail varnish and owning way too much of it it's been really hard to pick just five but I really like how the combination turned out on the nail wheel :)

From left to right: Models Own Hed Kandi collection Balearic cool, Kiko #360, OPI Nicki Minaj mini collection Did it on em, Essie Poppirazzi collection Action, MUA pistacchio icecream.

All of these shades are plain, without any glitter or shimmer and especially the Models Own and Kiko ones apply like a dream. I only own a few OPI mini lacquers, their brushes are a tad fiddly to use as they're tiny but I really like the polish itself. The brushes of the MUA polishes are rubbish but the creamy mint shade definitely makes up for it, it's one of my favourite shades ever and that is saying something! I loved the Essie one in the beginning but it turned all gloopy and the neon colour kind of collected on the bottom of the bottle and the brush making it impossible to use..if you know how to fix this, please let me know as it's a great polish!

This is what they look like applied:

Lovely, eh? Which shades do you use most during spring/summer? Do you match your polish to the seasons or just wear whatever you feel like wearing? Let me know! :)

Lacquered #2

Hey lovelies, how are you? I hope you've had a great weekend!

I'm finally done with my exams and trust me, I couldn't be happier. Don't you just hate being stuck inside for weeks thanks to bloody revision? Ye, me too. So today I got a bit snap happy and took a gazillion pictures for the blog, can't wait to write all these posts I have planned over the last few weeks :)

Today I'm going to show you a few nail varnishes I've purchased since my last Laquered post [read here in case you're interested]. If you've been following my blog or Twitter for a while, you might know I'm obsessed with nail polish and can't stop buying new ones. 

You might also know that I'm on a spending ban since the beginning of january and I never would have thought it would be that easy, except for the MUA 50% off offer a month ago [which has been my one exception during the spending ban, would be rude not to take advantage, eh] I didn't spend any money on makeup, clothes or other unneccessary things. Go me! I'm a lucky lady though and my mum as well as my boyfriend treated me to a few goodies which I'm going to show you soon, including a teeny weeny Primark haul, some new H&M cosmetics and said MUA haul.

Enough babbling, onto the polish!

p2 and Essence are both German brands and I have decided to include some of their products in my giveaway which I'll start as soon as I hit 200 GFC followers :) So keep your eyes peeled for that if you're interested in trying something new!

You obviously can't really tell what the colours look like from the bottle so here are some swatches, however they don't do some of these pretty sparkly polishes justice. Be prepared for a bunch of pictures!

Sparkling Surprise is actually such an amazing colour, it turned out quite golden in the pictures but most of the time and depending on the lighting it's a gorgeous rose gold kind of shade. Fever is a metallic bright red which I wore a lot over Christmas :)

Grey-t to be here is yet another beautiful shade, a light grey with peachy pink glitter running through it. You should google some more swatches as it looks amazing! Midnight romance is a dark navy metallic shade which stained my nails for weeks, even when worn with a base coat underneath. Lovely shade though ;)

Powerful Emerald has the prettiest metallic finish, it's really shiny, not like Essie's metallic collection, but it also applies quite streaky which is a shame as it's a beautiful colour. Oh lala and Fabulous are my first H&M nail polishes and I have to say I'm impressed! Both were a mere 50p in the sale so I had to snap them up to try. Fabulous Nails Honey is such a gorgeous shade and applied like a dream. Oh lala is a peachy-pink with tiny golden glitters running through it, the perfect summer shade.

Ever since Models Own released their Mirrorball&Wonderland collections I knew I had to have them. Unfortunately Jack Frost and Hot Stuff were the only shades left when I went to Boots shortly after their launch and I never got around to purchase the other shades. Loving both of them though! Hot Stuff looks amazing layered over pale pink or black polish but I'm yet to find a shade which brings out Jack Frost's sparkle. Recommendations welcome as always :) I got the Barry M Pink Sapphire as I didn't have a similar one yet, I originally planned on getting the Jewel Britannia one but it was out of stock at every Superdrug I had a look at that time, boo!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post! What do you think of these shades? Which one is your favourite and what are your favourite nail polish brands?

P.S. I am now on Instagram! My username is ohsnapbabes if you would like to follow me, make sure to leave your names in the comment section :)

Models Own Summersale

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Hiya lovelies, hope you're all good! I've gained more than 40 followers already which is amazing, big hug to all of you :)

I've been feeling so poorly over the last week I just couldn't be bothered to do anything really. Seems like everyone's struggling with the flu or a cold recently, so if you do, too get better soon lovely :)

Also it got really cold over the past week and it started snowing in some parts of the country, which has me all excited because I'm kind of getting in a festive mood oooh! Are you already out and about buying christmas prezzies or is it last minute shopping for you? 

Anyway, before I'm going to spend my money on cute reindeer jumpers and fleecy onesies and tons of chocolate I decided to treat myself [yes, again!] in the Models Own summer sale they had last month. It took them ages to ship my order and I know I'm really late with showing which shades I got but it only arrived on friday I'm afraid. I'm definitely happy with the shades I got, unfortunately the Mirrorball collection has already been sold out when I ordered as was Indian Ocean from their Beetlejuice collection but I might just pick them up when I'm in Westfield next month. Just wish I had ordered more now but that's just me being addicted to nail varnish.

Without boring you lovely lot any further, let's have a look at my order.

Yes, I like to pretend I'm a top photographer by snapping from an angle.

with flash, sparkly sparkly

click to enlarge to see the names of the shades

Pink Fizz is such a lovely shade, almost opaque with only one layer and I love the champagne undertones. Speaking of which, Lili's Pink is from their Champagne collection and it has a micro-glittery almost matte effect and it's been a dream to apply. I think especially the Beetlejuice collection can give you a hard time with application, their unbelievably sheer in one coat but build up their colours quickly to be fair. I just wish they'd hurried up though because I don't think Balearic Cool is suitable for autumn/winter, Purple Blue and Thunder&Lightening however are a nice addition to my autumnal polish collection :)

Tropical Sun is a peachy-orangey kind of shade, the colour shift is not too obvious here and it contains only a bit of glitter, which i didn't even notice on any swatch I've seen before. The pictures don't do justice to the sparkly shades, especially the multi coloured glitter in Thunder&Lightening is so much prettier in real life. I could sit and stare at these all day long, I'm wearing Purple Blue on my nails right now and find myself pointing my fingers out towards the windows oohing and aahing over the pretty shifting colour ha! 

Did you take advantage of their sale? Which shades did you get? Feel free to leave the links to your haul posts in the comments, love a good nosey!

Lacquered #1

Hiya lovelies, hope you all had a great weekend so far! What have you been up to?

I thought I'd start a series today I've already started a while ago on my other blog; people seemed to enjoy it a lot so maybe you do, too!

It's called Lacquered [yes, very creative..can't help it!] and I'll basically show you a few [loads that is] nail polishes I've bought recently. Just like many other bloggers I have an unhealthy obsession with nail varnish and have to come up with new storage solutions every now and then as my collection is ever growing. Not that it's bothering me ;) Alright so after an excessive introduction that's enough babbling, I'll just show you!

The first one is by Hema, a dutch retailer selling not only makeup but also clothing, homewares, crafty things [think a smaller M&S] and it's just a multicoloured glitter polish I'm going to layer over any colour to add some sparkles ♥ They're a pain in the arse to remove but I can't live without a bit of glitter! [ooo becoming very dramatic here]. Next is a topcoat by Essence claiming to add holographic effects to any polish. Don't know if it actually does as I've only applied it on its own and since it's quite pinky beige I'm not too sure this would work. But it's a really pretty shimmery colour though!

The red polish by Catrice was something I've been eager to try when I was given the bottle but once I've applied it I was disappointed. The red glitter doesn't show up at all, instead it looks like there are bits of something stuck to the polish and it just looks bumpy. The glittery pink varnish by Essence is right up my street without a doubt!

After Eight by Catrice is a lovely almost black green which I'm looking forward to wear in autumn! It's very opaque as well and I just love the wide brush the Catrice polishes come with! Essence's Chic Reloaded is a lovely duochrome colour, not as sparkly as Models Own Beetlejuice collection but very pretty though. It's changing from a berry/purple kind of colour to a dark mossy green, depending on the incidence of light.

Circus Confetti is obviously [although not entirely] a dupe to Models Own Ibiza Mix, one of the most raved about polishes this year. I was a bit late to jump on the bandwagon but couldn't resist when I spotted this in a drugstore for a mere £1. Below there is Night Glam by Rival de Loop [a German drugstore brand], a sparkly dark purple with a matte finish, just like Action and Lights by Essie which also dry down matte. I guess everyone knows Essie by now so I won't rave about the lovely neon colours here!

Last but not least there's a Sparkle Touch varnish by Kiko. You'll see another Kiko bottle -a pinkish coral shade- below but I couldn't get my camera to display the colour properly. This one's a shiny light pink with golden sparkles oooo I want to look at it all day long! 

So there you go, loads of new nail varnishes I like to show off ;) I took a picture of the bottles because I think the colours can vary widely when being applied and I always like to see what they look like in the bottle :) Sorry if you don't care at all. I might show you a few nail art designs on my nail wheels as well, if you're interested? Just leave a comment below :)

So what do you think of the colours? What are your favourite nail polish colours/brands? Which shades will you be sporting in autumn?